For the men of this tiny village near Pondicherry, dishing out a feast is a tradition

For the men of this tiny village near Pondicherry, dishing out a feast is a tradition

For the men of this tiny village near Pondicherry, dishing out a feast is a tradition.

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Ajith Pillai

December 31, 1994

ISSUE DATE: December 31, 1994

UPDATED: July 18, 2013 16:07 IST

A tiny dot of a village with over 200 cooks and professional ones at that, where nearly every male member is a cook, but who has never been to catering school. Yet he commands such respect for his culinary skills that his services have to be booked six months in advance.

Food enough for thought. For the men of Kalayur village, 30 km from Pondicherry, it is an art that has stood the test of time. With recipes and techniques that have come down three generations, these men are now so famous that Kalayur is better known as the village of cooks.

It all began at the turn of the century when the wealthier Reddiar families in the neighbouring towns began hiring the Vaniyars, who were washermen by profession till then, to cook at feasts. The Reddiars found them good at churning out traditional Brahmin fare and also preferred them to the professional Brahmin cooks, who looked down on the Reddiars, the trading community from Andhra Pradesh.

Recalls R. Balaram, who at 65 is the oldest cook in the village: "During my father's time, one of the men with an interest in cooking took it up as a profession and formed a team. Since farming was becoming difficult and no one was trained to take on jobs, many of us became cooks."

Today, Balaram is one of the four "head cooks" in the village and is proud of his community's achievements: "We are in great demand because we provide good, wholesome and tasty food."

For a good six months of the year, the men are busy doing the rounds of marriage halls. Cultivating paddy has never been a profitable proposition and the villagers are happier rushing off to Tirupati, Madurai or Madras on "cooking contracts".

Says P. Ranganathan, 47, another "head cook" and spokesman of sorts for the other cooks:" We are home for about 15 days a month. That is when we look after our paddy fields." But cooking has always come first.

Youngsters learn on the job. A raw recruit begins by cutting vegetables or stoking the fire and then moves up the ladder. It takes him about 10 years to graduate to the position of a senior cook, one capable of forming his own team with 50 helpers.

Explains Ranganathan: "When you are cooking for 2,000 people, you have to be good at planning and for that, you need experience. The head cook is like a manager." A team charges Rs 3,000 for cooking and serving a feast for 500 people.

The menu is decided in advance and normally runs through the rasam-sambhar-side dishes-dessert spectrum, though it could have anything up to 12 dishes, depending on what the host orders. They also make non-vegetarian dishes which, however, are never served at weddings.

Given the ingredients and cooking facilities, these cooks can prepare a feast for 1,000 people in three hours.

The cooks are reluctant to name any one dish as being their claim to fame. Also, they do not label any particular cook a specialist.

According to them, cooking a full meal to perfection and well within the deadline is what has made these men of Kalayur popular and it is team work more than anything else which has contributed to their success.

If the hosts provide all the ingredients and the cooking facilities are right, a feast for a thousand people can be prepared in three hours, claim the head cooks.

And though the profession is not always handed down from father to son, there is no dearth of youngsters wanting to take it up. Such as 18-year-old M. Jayamon, who has been cooking ever since he finished high school. He sees his work as a profession that earns him enough money and keeps him in touch with his village. There are over 50 other youngsters who have opted for a career in cooking.

But for all their expertise, the chefs of Kalayur do not do even a spot of cooking in their own homes. Here, the work is left to their spouses. Says Ranganathan candidly: "We do not enter the kitchen. At home, the wives cook." What he doesn't say is what their cooking is like.

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